Could Boston Do It Again?

OK, so it's totally ridiculous. It's not a productive conversation. It's dopey and silly and bears no comparison. This talk of footsteps, ghosts and allusions to dusty diamond failures is facile, cheesy. There is zero connection to be drawn between the 2013 New York Knicks and the 2004 New York Yankees.

Except that it's Boston.

(Shudder.)

ENLARGE

Kevin Garnett and the 2013 Celtics are starting to look like the 2004 Red Sox.
Associated Press

Had the Knicks gone up three games to none on the Milwaukee Bucks or the Atlanta Hawks and blown two straight, there wouldn't be a whiff of panic in NYC. New York would simply be demanding that the Knicks tie their shorts, go out and polish off the Bucks or the Hawks. There would be no strained effort to correlate past collapses or any statistical sorcery. Nobody would point out bad memories, still raw.

But it is Boston. The New York Knicks had a three-game lead against the Boston Celtics in their first-round NBA playoff series and they have surrendered two games of it. They are heading north Friday and the Celtics have a chance to even the series and force a Game 7. So of course you're hearing about 2004. About the last time a New York team held a 3-0 lead on a Boston team. About a Yankee club that infamously surrendered it. About Curt Schilling and the bloody sock, Dave Roberts and Big Papi and Kevin Millar pouring pregame shots of Jack Daniel's in the locker room. It is the most painful collapse in modern New York sports, almost 10 years old, the meltdown that dare not speak its name.

The Knicks do not deserve this lumping-in, but they invited it. They have allowed Boston to slide in through the mail slot. This should not have happened. The Knicks are a better basketball team than the Celtics. Boston is thin and flawed, and sometimes on the court they wander around like an old couple shopping for fruit and vegetables. They finished barely a scratch over .500 while the Knicks had the second-best record in the conference. New York had chances to polish Boston off in both Game 4 and Wednesday's Game 5. They did not.

So instead here we are, being reminded of Roberts's steal of second and Bill Mueller's single off Mariano Rivera and Alex Rodriguez trying to slap the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's glove. Johnny Damon is out of pinstripes, back in Jesus hair. It's uncool but also inevitable. Spirits have been awakened. A silly but brutal stat is making the rounds: Since 2004, New York teams carrying 3-0 series leads against Boston teams are 0-6.

Ahem.

The Knicks would make this a lot easier if they just made this easier. Since Game 3 they have regressed into their worrisome old selves, not the steam engine that wound down the regular season with a 13-game winning streak. Unlikable habits have emerged. Carmelo Anthony is shooting poorly and not passing and his mercurial sidekick J.R. Smith appears to have left his head somewhere between Logan and LaGuardia. Coach Mike Woodson admitted that his team is offensively "searching," and when Game 5 ended, boos rattled the Garden. The Knicks had worn black clothes to the game, preparing for a Celtics "funeral." Instead they got chased around like Dr. Frankenstein in the lab.

The experienced Celtics are forcing an anxious New York team to come and take it. After Game 4, Boston's Jeff Green said all of the pressure is on the Knicks, and it sounded a little premature then, but not now. The Celtics know this is mental now. They are a grizzled, grouchy team, full of Tommy Jones characters. Kevin Garnett has rented a two-bedroom apartment in Anthony's head. Paul Pierce is paddling up the court and hitting pressure three-pointers like it's a summer league game. This is not Boston's first rodeo. They won't be rattled.

Panic button? Naw. Not yet. You can comfort yourself that in NBA history no team has ever clawed back from 0-3 to win a seven-game series.

Are you comforted?

Nope.

It had never happened in baseball. Until 2004.

If Boston has a flair for drama—and doesn't mind being a little obnoxious—they'll plop Curt Schilling courtside next to Dave Roberts for Game 6. Maybe David Ortiz can drop an inspirational F-bomb on the Jumbotron. Boston fans thought they were going to a franchise wake last weekend. Instead they are watching an odd revival of the city's greatest comeback. New York should have put away Boston; instead, a series has tightened up. This has happened before. It's a cheap comparison. Those baseball ghosts are pointless in this basketball series. Until they are not.

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